Naruto Shippuden Episode 323: The Five Kage Assemble

And the Five Kage are assembled! They sure decided to act fast. A few gimmicks were revealed along the way, and I’m not too sure how I feel about those – Mabui’s transport jutsu (only meant to teleport items, it seems) I could understand, but Genma’s team knowing the Hiraishin was more of a long-shot. For starters, I didn’t even know there was a team built for the express purpose of protecting the Fourth Hokage. Hiraishin always seemed like one of those cool, main character-only moves that Naruto will eventually inherit – even if it takes all three of them to properly use it, I can’t help but feel like it’s been devalued a little. Anyway! Prospects are looking slightly better now that the Kage are here, aren’t they? Just slightly. We’re seeing some fancy combo moves being pulled off, with the Kage managing to play to each other’s strengths and target Madara effectively (the Raikage even pushed back Susanoo slightly!) But meanwhile, all Madara’s been doing is rampaging – with just those Susanoo swords, he’s wrecking havoc. It almost seems like he’s playing around with the Kage as opposed to seriously fighting them. And meanwhile, the Kage aren’t in top condition – three of them are hurt to some degree, Tsunade being one of them. And she’s their medic. That’s not good :D

Oonoki spoke a lot about cooperation and a united alliance this week. While it might seem like a standard staple for many shounen shows, we have to remember that Oonoki used to look down on that sort of belief – Iwagakure were involved in all sorts of shady dealings in the past, to the point that they employed the Akatsuki to carry out the dirty work for them. For Oonoki to say this publicly, in front of the other Kage (and Naruto) shows that he’s gone through quite a bit of development. There was always an issue of post-war spoils (and possible future conflicts because of that) but it might not be much of a problem now.

The most exciting part of everything is that Naruto has been left to deal with Tobi – the “other” Madara, as the Kage are calling him. It’s already been hinted at in the OP, but it’ll definitely be epic, especially now that Naruto and Bee will have to fight against the former Jinchuriki as well. Despite Naruto not having any chakra left when faced with Madara’s Mokuton jutsu, the Kyuubi was willing to let him use its power – do I smell possible cooperation in the future?